Doin' the cell phone shuffle

The happy day is soon approaching when AT&T/Cingular will no longer control my life. August 5th is freedom day as my last two year contract expires. In reality, this won't mean much other than affording number two son the chance to leave for a carrier covering his area of the state more completely. It does, however, give me a perfect chance to reflect on the vagaries of finding the technology you want in our "competitive" marketplace.

For reasons more practical than technical, I wish to stay with a GSM carrier. According to the GSM association, 78% of the world's 2 billion plus mobile phone subscribers use GSM phones. This incredible market penetration means that if you travel at all, having a US carrier which uses the GSM standard can save you some significant grief. GSM's system is less spectrum efficient than the most popular system in the US, CDMA, but even that is changing in the near future.

That "near future" aspect is part of the problem. Virtually all of the current Cingular system is a second generation system, but this will be changing rapidly as they roll out 3G equipment and would result in the obsolescence of the phones they are currently marketing in my area long before I'd be able justify buying another handset.

My original intent was to wait until 3G rolls out here and then buy new equipment. My fiduciary duties as the FIBoD (see below) will be requiring me to bring the daughter's service under the umbrella of our family account. That will force me to a new Cingular contract and, at least for the wife, new equipment locked to a Cingular SIM. My current Nokia is easily unlockable, and has been, so I could stay with my present handset and just pop in a new SIM. The five years that I've had it though, have rendered it long obsolete, and I would dearly like to upgrade to a 3G handset that I'd likely be able to keep for another five years.

I've looked at what I want in a phone:

• quad band GSM for maximum portability
• true 3G UMTS/HSPDA capability with fallback to EDGE/GPRS
  
• Bluetooth connectivity
• IR connectivity
  
• good color display
  
• smartphone capability; i.e., email, IM, SMS, etc., and progammabilty
• reasonable camera

I can even tell you which model I think would nicely meet my needs; the HTC MTeoR. Only one problem, it's not offered here yet, and likely not to be for at least six months. It is currently available in Europe. I could order one from the grey-market, but since I do intend to stay with Cingular, would REALLY like to have one subsidized by them (and which could be unlocked later). Six hundred bucks is just a bit much for me though, even to get something this sweet. If you're interested in a full review of the MTeoR, go here. (note that this is not safe for work)

It amazes me that the country that invented the cell phone can't get a decent handset at the cutting edge of the tech, but that's the reality. By the time something comes here, most of the world would think it's already obsolete, and our networks are a joke. Sad. Simply Sad.

Signposts

One of my favorite movies, "It's a Wonderful Life" has George Bailey see what life would be like if he hadn't existed. Who doesn't have those moments when we wonder if we've made the right choices in life, or if we've made a difference anywhere? I know that I've been there from time to time, and Lord knows, life's taken a few swerves that I wouldn't have anticipated. The one thing that I've remained certain of through the years is that I married the right gal.

Thirty years ago today, these two kids of twenty tied the knot at St. Paul's Episcopal in Winona, Minnesota. The Reverend George Goodried was the officiant, and the service came from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Reverend Goodried had baptized her, and there was no doubt in my mind that the wrath of God would be called down upon my head by him if any harm ever came to her. That was her mother's wedding dress, and while you can't see them, her engagement and wedding rings were my grandmother's. She was breathtakingly gorgeous. We were holding hands throughout the ceremony, and I'll never forget her swinging them back and forth slightly the whole time. The reception was at the church and just a very small affair, but wonderful nonetheless.

Now, three decades and as many kids of our own later, (all of whom are now older than we were when we married) we still feel like the kids we were then, even if we do look a bit older. (and where did all that forehead come from?) We've had our moments from time to time, but we're still holding hands, and Lord willing, we'll never stop. There's no greater joy in my life than making her happy and I've one simple goal, to make it to an even century together. I'm enough of an optimist to think we will.

Mom, George and Nana are only in our thoughts now, but the wedding dress is still with us, as are the rings. Anniversaries are important reminders of where we began, and they always point toward the promise of what's to come. May you be as blessed as we.

Firsts

My first blog post about my first trip to Germany. The wife and I were to have a four day trip to Bonn where our daughter had been teaching on a Fulbright fellowship. It didn't quite work out that way.

We showed up at the airport at o-dark-thirty on the 23rd of June, bags in hand, ready to go. Delta and Continental had other ideas. After playing around with computers since '71, I thought I'd just about seen it all, but the airlines had a new one for me. Somehow my e-ticket number became unlinked from our confirmed reservation. Had it not been o-dark-thirty, I might have had the presence of mind to call the roaming gnome and retrieve the number, but that would come later...much later. (the gnome, by the way, resides on the sub-continent and has some training issues) The poor gal at the Delta counter was on hold with her own help desk for the better part of an hour trying to figure out how to proceed with us. Their answer turned out to be kicking the can down the road by selling us another ticket on the following flight out of town (having missed the one we were ticketed on) in the hopes that we could sort it out later. No problem, Mr. Mastercard fixes all such dilemmas.

No problem. If only. No, the Delta dispatchers arranged to have the flight crew for the aircraft we were to take to Salt Lake City arrive in Pasco too late in the evening the night before to satisfy the FAR requirements for crew rest. There was, of course, no backup crew at the end of the spoke. After delaying the flight past the time we could have made our connections to Bonn, the flight was cancelled and deadheaded empty to SLC. Needless to say, we were not the only unhappy campers that morning.

After returning home, and retrieving the ticket number from the gnome, we returned to the airport, twice, waiting for the line of angry customers to clear so we could fix our issues. The third time was the charm, and armed with the ticket number and the confirmation number, the nice folks (really) at our local Delta counter were able to fix things. Oh, boy, did they fix things.

The next morning we got out of town with no problems at all, made our connections to Newark, and found that we'd been seated in First Class for the long trip across the pond. Believe me, this beats the back of the bus hands down. It almost made the previous day's difficulties worthwhile.


Landing in Bonn early Sunday morning and meeting up with the daughter, we proceeded into Bad Godesburg where she'd been teaching and booked ourselves into the Hotel Kaiserhof. We couldn't have found a more convenient place to stay. Right across the street from the train and subway stations, and only a kilometer from the daughter's digs, it was ideally situated for us, and a nice place to boot.

It's at this point that I should mention that the daughter was not feeling well when we arrived, complaining of a sore throat. I should also mention that since she was returning to the States the same day we were, she was no longer covered by her health insurance. Keep that thought in mind.

Most of my first day was spent crashed recovering from jet lag and the sleep deprivation caused by departing before the sun rose in eastern Washington. The wife and daughter did get out and have a good time together, and they eventually managed to roust me out for a walk down to the Otto Kuhne Schule where she'd been teaching. Nice place. I don't have a picture of it, but I was touched by a small garden memorial to "unser gefallen".


We continued our little excursion down to the Rhine. It may be difficult to see, but yes, that is a castle in the background. I was struck by the overall similarity to our home in southeastern Minnesota. Low hills, about the same size river, lots of water traffic, and of course heat and humidity. It was not the most pleasant of days to be out walking, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world.



Monday was our major expedition day. We headed into Cologne on the train to see the sight. The Dom. The reason to see Cologne. Here's a quick photo of the wife and daughter in the plaza between the train station and the cathedral. The folks in red were Swedish football Fans. This was during the octo-finals of the World Cup and the whole country was nuts.

You do not want to know how many steps it takes to get to the top of the Dom's towers. Trust me, it's a lot, particularly since the spiral staircase is narrow, steep, and has two way traffic. It's worth doing. Once.

That was pretty much it for Monday. Tuesday was rainy and we stayed around Bonn. We also made sure the daughter got in to see the doctor, paid of course by the limitless funds of the now First International Bank of Dad. The verdict: tonsillitis. A raging case. The pharmacist was also paid from the same source. Tuesday also saw us making a pilgrimage to the fine folks at the DeutschePost. You see, daughter had accumulated nine months worth of invaluable stuff which had to be either shipped or carried back by Mom and Dad. We had each arrived in Germany with a small carry-on. We each left with an additional bag. The post got the remaining six boxes and more cash from the FIBoD.

By this point in the trip I was very, very happy that Germany has earned a reputation for fine beer. It's amazing how many of life's ills are cured by a good dose of a well-crafted Pilsner.

The trip back was uneventful, although the whole trip was in cattle-class and one loooooong leg was behind a teenager who never did figure out that the lump in his seat-back was my knee. Such is life, I suppose. I'd love to rant on the subject, but it's late and I want to hit the xbox before bed.